The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure. Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in the present disclosure and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Detection of current conditions, e.g., overcurrent conditions for high-speed switching devices, can be problematic. Previous solutions have used fast comparators to assist in monitoring an instantaneous voltage of a power switch. Such comparators may be enabled during a conducting phase of the power switch and may make a decision during the active time of the power switch. For high speed switching converters, however, a comparator may need to be very fast which can result in high current consumption. Timing also needs to be accurate. For switching frequencies, e.g., above 100 megahertz (MHz), typical solutions may not be feasible. Accordingly, converters of this speed often lack overcurrent protection.